It is more than broken…

The recently released employment engagement survey results for the City of Edmonton showed more than half of City employees have little to no confidence in our senior management to deliver on our civic goals.

In an effort to delve behind this figure and other alarming numbers in the survey, I pushed to have a full public discussion of these numbers and their consequences. I felt that letting other organizations and individuals, such as past employees and our union leaders, discuss these results would help City Council understand the story behind the numbers. Unfortunately, my motion was defeated by Council in a 6-7 vote.

What is at issue here is that our senior management is broken and the numbers show it (in my opinion even after being thoroughly massaged by Administration). The result of my defeated motion, in effect, was that given we have a problem with senior management, Council said, “Let’s throw this back to them to fix!” What was that definition of insanity again? Once more, it appears to me that most of my colleagues on Council are not interested in tackling the bad news. Instead, they demonstrated again that they are content to push the most important problem our civic corporation faces – the effective and efficient management of this multibillion dollar corporation – back under the carpet. Hoping for what? I am not sure.

The accounts shared with me by front-line employees who tell of gross waste, mismanagement and negligence within the City are beyond sad. But we have a leadership team who either has no interest or the ability to fix our most pressing problems. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the reports from our City Auditor for the last five years and you can draw your own conclusions.

The City of Edmonton is broken and we seem to have a majority on Council who don’t want you to see it. It is clear as day to me where the problem lies… what about you?

Comments

Numerous City employees have shared with me that we have far too many layers of management. By the time an issue makes it way upwards it loses substance, faces time delays, the issue is shelved….we need to address the “layers”. Then with layers removed, we can address the real issue of management effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. Top Managers survive on the support of the layers, the bureaucratic management layers that are waiting their turn to be at the top….”Wannabees”

The Minister of Municipal Affairs needs to do a forensic enquiry into tha administrations of both Edmonton and Calgary.
We have a major corruption problem a evidenced by the “missing millions” that “infuriates” the mayor at each revelation, at least, in Edmonton.
When are you going to run for mayor, Mike Nickel, and kick some arse?